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Isaac Newton/Transcipt
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. Tim and Moby are above Earth in a space shuttle. They are weightless and floating around the cabin. MOBY: Beep! TIM: Can you please stop telling Houston that we have a problem? MOBY: Beep. Beep. Moby holds a hand over his mouth, giggling. A piece of paper floats toward Tim. TIM: Wow. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, who was Isaac Newton? Sincerely, Dylan. Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and natural philosopher. An image shows Sir Isaac Newton. There is an apple tree behind him. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, you don't get a reputation as one of the most influential figures in the history of science by being good in just one subject. Newton was born in 1643 in the town of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth. A map shows the location of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth in the country of England. An inset shows Woolsthorpe Manor, the house where Newton was born. TIM: That's where he would do some of his most famous work, including helping invent calculus and coming up with his theory of universal gravitation. An image shows the house where Newton grew up. TIM: But before that, he almost became a farmer! At age 17, Newton was away studying at school when his mother ordered him back home to learn the farming trade. An animation shows Newton studying a book by Galileo, then being pulled from his seat pushed onto a field on his family's farm. He holds a pitchfork. A cow moos. TIM: Luckily, the school's headmaster convinced his mother to send Newton back. After finishing with high marks, he enrolled at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he studied for the next four years. An image shows Trinity College. TIM: The school shut down in 1665 because of an outbreak of plague, so after getting his degree, Newton went home to continue his scientific explorations. An animation shows Newton back in his study at home, holding the Galileo book. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, that's where he saw the famous apple! According to legend, Newton was sitting by his window in Woolsthorpe Manor when he saw an apple falling from one of the trees in his garden. Newton looks away from his book and sees an apple fall from a tree outside. An animation shows the apple hitting the grassy ground. TIM: That got him thinking about the mysterious force that pulled the apple to the ground and whether it was the same force that kept the moon in orbit around the Earth, and the Earth around the Sun. An animation shows the Earth, moon, and sun in space. Earth rotates quickly, and the moon orbits it. Earth and the moon both travel around the sun. TIM: Newton decided that it was, and this force, which he called gravity, affects every object in the universe, depending on its mass and distance. Animations show Earth and the moon traveling around the sun, alongside the apple falling to the ground. MOBY: Beep. Tim and Moby float into each other. TIM: Hey, watch where you're going! So, in 1687, Newton published this universal law of gravitation. It was in a book called the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, usually just shortened to the Principia. An image shows the title page of the book Tim describes. TIM: Newton also used the Principia to unveil his other major contribution to physics: his three laws of motion, which explain how and why stuff moves. You can find out more about them in our Newton's Laws of Motion movie. An animation shows a clip from the movie Tim describes. In it, Tim and Moby ride a toboggan down a snowy hill while arrows indicate the forces acting on them. TIM: But physics was just one part of Newton's work. He was also pretty good with numbers. An image shows Newton doing a complicated mathematical equation with a quill pen. He sticks his tongue out in concentration. TIM: He's one of the inventors of calculus, the kind of math that lets us measure curves and irregular shapes. An animation shows a curved figure, drawn on a piece of graph paper. TIM: And then there's Newton's work in optics, the branch of physics that deals with the properties of light. An image shows Newton looking through a telescope at the sky outside his study window. TIM: By refracting light through a prism, he discovered that white light is made up of a whole spectrum of colors. An animation shows white light passing through a triangular prism and being broken into the visible spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. TIM: Using this discovery, he invented a new kind of telescope: the reflecting telescope. An image shows Newton's reflecting telescope. TIM: Back then, refracting telescopes formed images by using lenses to bend light, resulting in a lot of the colors being lost. An animation shows Tim looking at the Moon through a small, hand-held refracting telescope. The animation traces the way the two lenses bend light from the moon and focus it on Tim's eye. TIM: Newton's reflecting telescope avoided this problem by using mirrors to reflect light, resulting in a much higher quality image. An animation shows an image of the Moon passing through a reflecting telescope, as Tim describes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, he was eventually knighted, but it wasn't for his contributions to science. Newton received his knighthood as a reward for his work as the master of the Royal Mint in London. He used his position at the mint to completely reform English currency, and he devoted a lot of time and energy to punishing counterfeiters, too! An animation shows Newton doing calculations at a table. A single candle lights the room. There are piles of coins all around him. TIM: Of course, he'll always be known for his scientific work. In 1703, Newton was named president of the Royal Society, the most prestigious organization of scientists in England. An image shows Newton onstage, being applauded by a group of scientists. TIM: And when he died in 1727, he became the first scientist to be buried in Westminster Abbey, the famous church where English monarchs are buried. An image shows Westminster Abbey. TIM: But his long list of discoveries, theories, and laws lives on, becoming the driving force behind the scientific revolution and inspiring future thinkers. An image shows Newton with the Earth, Moon, and Sun, an apple, a telescope, and a prism. TIM: Once people realized that the inner workings of nature could be revealed through rational and universally accepted scientific methods, all sorts of doors were opened! MOBY: Beep. Moby floats toward a shuttle door. He reaches to open it. Text on the door reads: Danger. TIM: No, not that door! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts